The First Trial: Women

In the case of the trial posed by women, the form of his return to God in his love of them is that he sees that the whole loves that which is a part of it and yearns for it. Thus he only loves himself because originally woman was created from man, from his short rib, and in relation to himself, he puts her in the position of the form on which God created the perfect man. This is the form of the Real. So the Real made her a place of manifestation for him. When something is a place of manifestation for someone, the looker only sees himself in that form. When he sees himself in this woman, his love for her is intense and he inclines to her because she is in his form. It is clear to you that his form is the form of the Real on which He brought him into existence. So he sees only the Real, but it is with the appetite of love and the pleasure of union in which there is true annihilation by sincere love. He meets her with his essence in a meeting of likes. That is why he is annihilated in her. So there is no part of him but that is in her. Love therefore flows throughout all his parts, and all of him is connected to her. That is why annihilation in his like is total annihilation, as opposed to his love for the other than his like. He is unified by his beloved so that he says:

I am the one I love,
and the one that I love is me.

The Mysteries of Bearing Witness to the Oneness of God and Prophethood of Muhammad -Muhyidin Ibn 'Arabi